


Lost Girls

by A55hole69



Series: The Great Adventures of Roman and the Avengers [9]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Attempted Murder, Camping, Car Accidents, Deaf Character, Emotional Constipation, Family, Female Loki (Marvel), Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Gun Violence, Hospitals, Human Trafficking, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Minor Character Death, Minor Original Character(s), Olympics, References to Depression, Sex Work, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:40:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21782326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A55hole69/pseuds/A55hole69
Summary: Roman never expected to find herself in this situation, although she really shouldn't be surprised. This kind of thing happens to her very regularly. But adopting one hundred and sixty young girls, and almost getting killed for it, seemed a bit too extreme this time.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Great Adventures of Roman and the Avengers [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1471691
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter 1

"Life has been good, these past few weeks. A little too good. I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to something that is going to turn everything upside down and I don't know if it's bad or good, but I know it's close." 

The group listened to Roman speak, this was probably the first time she wasn't playful in the session and it was worrying. For the entire thing she just had an unreadable look on her face, and she was constantly zoning out on every conversation until it was her turn.

"Why do you feel like that?" Curtis asked.

"It's the exact same feeling I got a week before my son died. Something's gonna happen to me and I don't know if I'll like it." 

*

*

It was midnight and Roman found herself roaming the streets of New York. It was the rough part, where the prostitutes and the muggers and the dealers conducted business. It was a part of New York that Roman had never been, never even thought of visiting. Yet somehow, she found herself there. She didn't fight it, she knew there was a reason her gut lead her here. 

She was lost in her thoughts. Thinking about her wife again, Carolina was acting sketchy as all hell. Before she left for the space station again, she told this very unnecessary lie. She has been lying to Roman for over a year now. Roman ignored it at first, mostly because she didn't care, Carol's business was not her business. But last night, the woman started an insane argument over nothing, like she had been doing for the past few months, to distract Roman from her very obvious lie. Roman was probably over thinking the entire situation.

"H-Hey!" A small nervous voice sounded. Roman turned around to see a young girl were next to nothing on such a cold November night. She was tiny compared to Roman, with lovely caramel skin, thick curly brown hair and a face full of makeup. "You-you, uh...looking for a, fun time?" 

She was a new girl, Roman could tell, by her tone and her facial expressions, she could also tell that the girl did not want to be there. Her eyes kept darting behind Roman like she was terrified of what or who was there. From the reflection in the glass of the tiny coffee shop Roman was in front of, she could see three men in comfy winter wear, frowning at the girl. 

Roman looked her up and down, she took her coat off and handed it to the girl. "Take this and put it on before you get a cold." 

The girl hesitated before taking the coat, "Thank you." 

"What is your name? And how old are you? Do not lie to me." Roman asked firmly.

The girl looked behind Roman again and started trembling. "I don't think I can tell you that." 

"If any of those men come over here they will be dealt with. Answer the questions."

She hesitated naturally before stuttering out, "A-Amanda, I'm Amanda and I'm eighteen. This is my first night out and they told me if I don't do this they're gonna kill me." She was bawling her eyes out now, like she was barely keeping herself together in the first place. "I don't want to do this, please help me."

Roman nodded, and pulled a gun from the back of her pants, "Zip up the coat, you're still shivering." She screwed a silencer into the gun and took Amanda's hand. 

She tucked the girl behind her and shot the three men lurking in the shadows. Amanda gasped and buried her head into Roman's back. Roman pulled her out from behind her, when all three men dropped dead, and took her hand. 

Amanda was freaking out and crying, "There's more of them, way more and there's a warehouse filled with girls." 

"We'll deal with them after we get you someplace warm." The girl clung to Roman's right arm as they walked down the dimly lit street, calmly, as if Roman hadn't just shot and killed three very dangerous men.

*

*

"I just turned eighteen last week. Meaning I aged out of the orphanage, and I had to find someplace else to stay. I had a job and money, I had it planned out, but I got grabbed when I left the orphanage and thrown into a black van. They took my money and everything I owned and I'm pretty sure I'm fired because I haven't been to work in a week and my boss hated me." Amanda rambled on and Roman listened carefully.

"They didn't touch you did they?" 

Amanda shook her head, "No, I was a lucky one. There were two other girls who came in the same day as me and the guy in charge asked if they were virgins and the first girl said yes and he..." Amanda started crying again, "He's a monster. He did it right in front of everyone, it so awful. I had to lie and tell them I wasn't a virgin." 

Roman nodded, "How many men are they, in total?"

"There are nine guarding the girls, and twelve guarding the warehouse and the man in charge always had two by his side, so like twenty three. Sometime last week there was an extra three guys, I don't know if that's a regular thing." 

"How many girls?" 

"Fifteen." 

Roman nodded, she got a pen and a sheet of paper, "Draw the layout of the building. Where the girls are kept, where the guards usually are, where the main boss is, anything you can remember." 

Amanda happily obliged, and got to work. She was a smart girl, from the sound of it, she was planning her escape from the minute she arrived at the hell hole. 

Amanda slid the paper across the kitchen island to Roman, who grabbed it and looked at it. She studied it, folded it and put in in her back pocket.

"Do you know how to use a gun?" 

Amanda eagerly nodded, "My dad taught me how... before he died."

"Know how to drive a school bus?" 

Amanda paused before nodding, "Yes, but don't ask me how. It's embarrassing." 

"Go get some rest, I'm going to prepare my guest rooms for the girls, be up and ready by noon. I take it you can handle that?" 

The girl nodded, "Thank you." 

"I'll leave clothes for you in the ensuite bathroom."

*

*

Stealing a school bus was far too easy, whoever ran the place needed to get security or something. Roman and Amanda just walked into the lot, hot wired a bus and took it. There was no fight, zero resistance, zero anything. There wasn't even anyone in the lot.

Amanda drove the bus a block away from the warehouse and parked it right there, while Roman prepared. Instead of her usual guns, she had a bow and arrows. Roman had explained that they didn't leave a trace like bullets and she didn't want to waste her good bullets. She also had two insanely large hunting knives and pepper spray. 

Roman gave Amanda a fully loaded hand gun, "You stay here and if anyone but me or one of the girls comes to this door, shoot them. Not to kill though, I wouldn't want that on your conscience, maybe in the leg or something." 

Roman pulled the ski mask over her face with her gloved hands and left the bus. She looked like a crazy person walking around with a bow and arrows at one in the afternoon, but this would be the best time to do it as no one would expect an attack during the day time.

As Amanda had drawn, there were four guys guarding the front door. Roman withdrew four arrows from the quiver. They didn't even have a chance, as soon as they saw her they tried to grabbed their guns but Roman was too fast and they each dropped with and arrow lodged in their eyes sockets.

Roman kicked down the front door and walked in like she owned the place. The warehouse had two floors, there were four guys in the bottom and four at the top, all armed with semiautomatic guns. She dealt with them swiftly and continued through the warehouse. 

*

*

Amanda waited in the driver's seat of the bus, nervously tapping the wheel. There were a few gun shots, each worried her more than the last. She didn't exactly know who Roman was, all she knew is that she was Tony Stark's older sister and she was in the Navy or something. She didn't know if the woman was good or not, but she was willing to trust Satan if it meant helping her rescue the other girls.

After seven minutes of silence, she was counting, Amanda let out a sigh of relief when she saw the door open, and a group of girls, in their underwear, all run out toward the bus. Amanda opened the door and let them in. 

"Oh my god. Amanda? We thought you were dead, he said you were dead." A small blonde girl hugged her and sobbed in her neck.

"I found help." She let go of the girl and stepped aside so the other girls could get in. "Come on, sit down, Emma."

Roman ran out of the warehouse seconds later and got on the bus, "Is that every one?" She peeled the mask off her face.

Emma nodded, "Yes." 

Amanda started the bus and drove off.

*

*

"Normally, I would do this by myself, but this is too big and too many lives are at stake. I need your...help." Roman cringed, "God that felt so weird to say."

The Avengers, along with Nick Fury and Amanda, all looked at Roman expectantly. Tony cleared his throat to catch her attention and asked, "What are you talking about?" 

Roman handed a small remote to Amanda, who seemed surprised at first but took it, and confidently stood at the front of the room. "A few nights ago, Roman rescued me from sex traffickers and the following day we rescued fifteen other girls. We thought it was over until Mrs. Stark found evidence that there were more operations around the world. Mrs. Stark and I thought that you could help us find these girls and put an end to this once and for all." 

"What information do you have, Mina?" Nick asked.

Tony frowned, "Mina? How the hell does he get to call you that? You've met him twice. I'm fact why is he even here? How do you have his number?" 

"Be quiet Tony, Amanda is about to kill this presentation." Roman turned to Amanda, "You're doing amazing, continue." 

The girl beamed and continued, she clicked the remote and the room went dark. A hologram popped up in the middle of the table with a man's disfigured face. "This was Dimitri Dalton. This is the picture Mrs. Stark took right after...you know," Amanda slid her finger across her neck.

"We get it." Steve stated.

"Right! So he is just a lackey, after Mrs. Stark went through his computer he was messaging people from different places, like Russia, parts of Asia, Germany, Brazil, Spain, Ukraine and California. We, mostly Mrs. Stark, I don't know anything about computers. We traced each of the signals and we found several locations, there's so many locations, each of them has in like thirty girls, tops." 

"Why are they taking these girls?" Loki asked curiously.

"We don't exactly know yet, but my theory is, they're all orphans. No one really gives a shit when orphans go missing. Which is why no one probably caught into this and they've been doing this under the radar for years. I think they grabbed them when they aged out of the orphanage and threatened them like they did to me. Big mistake, my dad did not raise a pussy." Amanda's eyes grew comically wide, "Not that the other girls are pussies, I'm sure they're all very brave." 

Roman chuckled, "I'm sure they are." 

"Where are the girls you rescued?"

"Six of them are staying at my house and the others left."

Tony raised his eyebrow, "So we're keeping them?"

"Only the ones who choose to stay."

"They're gonna be a lot more girls to come, you can't just keep them all in your house." 

"Of course not, I was thinking we use the old Stark mansion, the thing is as big as a college, it should hold at least two hundred people comfortably, we could renovate it, get rid of all the shitty art and mow the lawn or something."

"I thought you sold that place, Mina." Fury said.

"Again with the Mina thing. Roman, why is Nick calling you Mina? Is there something I should know?"

"That's classified." 

"So it's a work thing? Am I right? You guys fought together or something?" Tony looked between the two, who were glaring at him.

"Yeah, let's go with that one." Roman waved at Amanda to finish the presentation.

"Right, we haven't exactly found the person behind the entire thing, but, we found what their initials might be." She clicked the button and a bunch of files popped up, Amanda circled the bottom of the pages, "On every single one of these documents there are the letters A.P. But it could mean anything, we don't know if it's a man, a woman or a cow, all we have are these two letters." 

"How could it be a cow?" Vision asked in confusion. 

"It's not literal, I was trying to make a joke, I do that all the time. People find it fairly annoying, maybe why I don't have any friends."

"You're doing it again, Mandy." Roman snapped her out of whatever thought she was having. 

The girl jumped, "Right! Sorry about that."

*

*

"I might not be here next week. I'm going to Russia tomorrow, then India and Dubai." Roman announced to the group.

Curtis raised an eyebrow, "Why?" 

"Hunting trip."


	2. Chapter 2

The operation was successful. 

It took two weeks and many sleepless nights, but it was successful. They found seven extra warehouses in Europe and South Africa each of them filled with several frightened girls. They saved seven hundred and fifty six girls in total and only one hundred and fifty six girls chose to stay with Roman. It was more than she anticipated but she wasn't going to turn her back on any of them, they all needed her help.

The mansion was finished renovating by the time she got back. It didn't need much of anything, just cleaning, new beds, new towels, electricity and water. All of which Pepper took care of, even adding in something extra, courtesy of Tony. 

Roman and the girls arrived at the mansion in several buses. She opened the heavy iron gates and let the girls walk in first. They all gawked at the mansion and the massive garden. It was filled with different kinds of flowers and shrubs, with two rows of trees in either side of the drive way. 

The school bus Amanda stole was parked at the front of the house, meaning the other girls were there, probably helping out with the rest of the clean up. 

The girls entered the house, where Amanda and the other six girls all stood. They looked pretty dressed up and they each held a tray of ear pieces. 

"What's all this?" Roman asked.

"Since most of these girls don't speak English, FRIDAY and I came up with these things, it's a Bluetooth piece with FRIDAY programmed in them so she can translate to their native language." 

Roman nodded, "That's a wonderful idea. We brought way more girls than we thought." 

"I came prepared for that, we have two hundred ear pieces." Amanda answered with a grin on her face. 

Roman smiled. She motioned to the other girls waiting to take one and showed them how to put it on. They followed her lead and they all jumped in surprise, FRIDAY probably made herself known. Roman didn't need one as she spoke most of the languages, and she already sort of had the program in her hearing aids.

"Hello everyone. My name is Roman, and the girls standing behind me are, Emma, Ava, Elizabeth, Dorothy, Ruth, Eleanor, and the brains behind it all, Amanda. I understand that all of you just went through hell, so we are here to help you guys with anything you need. You can stay here in this house, if you want, or we can help you find someplace else to stay. The choice is yours. If you choose to stay, you will be separated into groups and each of these girls are going to show you around and help you get comfortable. Amanda?" Roman stepped aside and let Amanda take charge.

"Two weeks ago I was in the same situation as you guys and it was horrible. I wasn't held as long as most of you were but I know it was awful. If I hadn't bumped into this crazy old lady that night, none of this would be possible. I know you're probably scared right now, God knows you've been scarred for life, but together, we can help each other get through this." 

Some of them started crying, others were nodding and a couple of them looked angry. Not at Amanda, just in general. 

Amanda finished her speech and the girls split into groups of twenty six. Roman stayed behind with Amanda when they all left. "You're really good at this." 

"I was the student body president at my old high school and head cheerleader. My dad always said I was a natural leader." She hugged the clip board to her chest.

"He was right." Roman opened her jacket and pulled an envelope out, "These are their names, birthdays, and new ID cards. I already sorted out the whole green card issue. They have all of their papers and they're now citizens. Nicholas helped me with them." 

"Jesus, you guys work fast." Amanda took the thick envelope and rest it on the clip board.

"Well, I'm guessing the neighbours saw the buses pull up, we don't need ICE kicking down the door. Nick and I got each of them passports, drivers license, you name it. Next week when everyone settles in, I'm going to talk to everyone, so I can get them a job. I wish I could give them all allowances every month, but even I'm not that rich. Well I am, but I want you girls to be independent. I don't want them thinking that they owe me because I'm giving them money." 

"You saved them, so they're gonna think they owe you even if you don't give them money." 

Roman scoffed, "I didn't do anything, if it weren't for you I wouldn't have known about this thing, so technically you saved them, and I just killed some bad guys."

"Well you saved me, I owe you my life." 

"No you don't. You don't owe me anything, what I want from you is to live your life to the fullest. What do you want to do? I'll help you with whatever it is."

Amanda thought about it, "I want to help these girls settle down, they need us." 

Roman smiled, "You're a good kid. Your dad would be proud." 

Amanda teared up a little and hugged Roman, her face was buried in the woman's stomach, "Thank you."

*

*

It was late at night and Roman was home alone, again. The dogs were sleeping...somewhere, she didn't know exactly where. She walked to her kitchen for a mid night snack.

"Why do you always insist on sitting in the dark like a creep Nicholas?" She asked as she poured two glasses of milk, Roman took a pack of Oreos from her cupboard and turn on the light. 

"I have to keep you on your toes don't I?" He sat up in the chair he was slumped in.

"I didn't give you a key so you could try to give me a heart attack." She handed him one of the glasses and sat on the opposite side of the table, where they both ate.

"We both know it's next to impossible for you to have a heart attack with all that, shitty serum running through your veins." 

Roman chuckled, "So, did you come here to hang out like old times? Or do you want something?" 

"Little bit of both really. You've been working non stop for two weeks, I came by to see if you were okay. Also to find out where you are with this A.P. person." 

"Awe, I knew you still cared." 

"Trust me, I couldn't stop caring if I wanted to, we've known each other so long I can't even remember life before Roman." 

Roman laughed. "I'm fine, mostly. I just need to sleep, but I can't for some reason. As for the A.P. person, I decided to run an algorithm on my computer to sort through every single person with those initials and highlight the sketchy ones." 

"That has to be more than millions of people, you're gonna be searching for years." 

"I'm hoping it's someone with a huge ego, who is dramatic as fuck. They would come to me instead." 

Nick chuckled, "That's actually smart. With the kinds of criminals we get these days, that would definitely work. Maybe your algorithm will alert them and that'll spook em." 

"One can only hope so." Roman reached into the pack of cookies and it was empty, she looked up at Nick who had a malicious grin on his face, "You son of a bitch. You didn't even split the last one, we always split the last one." 

Nick laughed at the ridiculous expression of betrayal Roman had in her face. She kicked him under the table playfully.

"Stop it you old one eyed bastard." 

"Motherfucker. You know I'm sensitive about my eye, why would you bring that up."

Roman scoffed, "Oh shut up you drama queen. I still can't believe those idiots at SHIELD seriously believed that fake ass story, you can clearly see the little claw marks on your face." 

Nick have her a murderous look, Roman looked at him unapologetically, "What?" 

*

*

Tony entered Roman's house to the smell of cinnamon and eggs. Three of her dogs came running at him, wagging their tails excitedly. He pat their heads and moved past them toward the kitchen. He could hear talking, one voice was his sister, obviously and the other was...Fury? "What the hell?" He whispered and picked up his pace to the kitchen, where he found a shirtless Nick Fury and Roman in a yellow t-shirt and black sweat pants, her hair was a complete mess and she looked like shit.

Tony being Tony took this in and immediately thought the worst, he had so many negative things running through his head at that moment that he didn't even realize he had been spotted. The words just tumbled out of his mouth, he didn't mean to ask it at all.

"Are you guys having sex? Is that how you know each other? Is that why he calls you Mina?" 

"We did not have sex last night if that's what you're implying Tony." Tony paid attention to her wording, like everyone should. 

"Do you have sex on the other nights? How long has this been going on?" Tony looked like a child who just found out how babies were made, it was a strange description but it would be there best way to describe it. His eyes were wide and filled with confusion, Roman could tell he had so many questions so she decided to put an end to it.

"We haven't fucked since... '92?" She looked at Nick for affirmation.

"No it was in '95, remember Ben just turned sixteen and you got mad at me for something pointless." 

"It wasn't pointless, you missed his birthday again and he was really sad about it." 

"I was there the next day and I took both of you out for a picnic." 

"Hold on a sec." Tony was flabbergasted, "Ben knew?"

"Who do you think put him in there in the beginning?" Nick pointed at Roman's stomach, making the woman playfully slap him on the arm.

"Stop it, your gonna scar the poor man for life." 

"This is Ben's dad?! Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

Roman shrugged, "It's classified. Ben's birth certificate has so many black lines in it. We couldn't tell anyone because Nick had just started at SHIELD when I got pregnant, and he wouldn't be a very good spy if his face was all over for knocking up a Stark. So we decided to keep it a secret." 

"Exactly." Nick agreed.

Roman stirred something in a pot on the stove, "You want some porridge, Tones?" 

Tony stumbled on his words for a bit before yelling, "I don't want your porridge of lies." 

Roman looked at him confused, "What the fuck was that? You can do better than porridge of lies Anthony. Do you want some or not?" 

"Yes please." He sat at the far end of the dinner table as far away from Fury as possible, "I came here to ask about the girls, if they need anything. I was gonna go to the house but Pepper advised me against doing that." 

"Your wife is a smart woman. Most of the girls are either terrified of, or angry at anyone with a penis at the moment. Other than that and the fact that most of them are to scared to leave the house, they think they're gonna get grabbed again. Amanda is trying to come up with ways to help them get over that. It's gonna take a while." Roman slid a bowl of steaming porridge in front of Tony and sat down next to Nick.

"You'll figure it out." 

Nick tapped her hand to get her attention, "Remember when you were twelve and you were terrified to go home everyday after school so you would come to my house, on the rough side of the city, and spend the entire evening there?" 

"Yes? What does that have to do with anything?" 

Tony paused, "Twelve? How long have you two known each other?" 

Nick ignored Tony, "Remember how you felt after Marcus taught you how to defend yourself?" 

"I wasn't scared any more because I knew I could kick Howard's ass. What does this..." Roman eyes lit up with realization , "Oh, I see."

"Answer me Roman. How long have you two known each other?" Tony demanded.

*

*

"Ladies. I have gathered you today, to offer you an opportunity. Who wants to learn how to kick someone's ass?" Roman asked bluntly and with a straight face. Most of the girls looked at her confused and Amanda ran to Roman's side.

"What she means to say. How would you like to learn how to defend yourself? Especially from those disgusting men. At first I thought it was a bad idea, but Mrs. Stark may be onto something. We are all terrified, but knowing how to protect ourselves could help us feel a little better and I think all of us should really give this a shot. Who's with me?" 

A few hands raised, more than half actually, but not all of the girls.

"I'll also teach you how to shoot a gun, handle a knife and paralyze someone with one punch." Roman added. The rest of the hands raised immediately and Roman nodded. 

One of the girls from Russia, Kateryna, she was one of the eldest at twenty six and frankly she was terrifying. She stepped forward and said in a thick Russian accent, "Teach us to kill." 

Roman shrugged, "I can do that."


	3. Chapter 3

"I have gathered you all today because you are the most competent females I know, and you four are the most qualified for what I need help with." 

Natasha, Sharon, Maria and Loki all sat on the couch looking up at the woman who stood before them.

"I'm not currently in my female form." Loki pointed out.

"Yes, I know that, but if you say yes to the offer, you will need to be." 

Natasha crossed her legs, "What do you need help with?" 

"The girls want to learn how to defend themselves, it's the only way any of them will leave the house and frankly, it's not healthy, at all. So I agreed, but there's way too many of them. I didn't have many options because their all terrified of men at the moment and you are the only females I trust." 

Sharon cleared her throat, "Maria and I have never met you. Why do you trust us?" 

"Nicholas trusts you, and since we've been friends since childhood, I trust his judgement. Also, I've heard the stories, the two of you are amazing." 

They both smiled slightly. 

"What are we teaching them?"

"Everything. Weapons, hand-to-hand combat, fighting in tight spaces, surviving the out doors, medical stuff, everything. Each of us will teach them something different, if you agree of course." 

Roman looked at each of them, silently begging them with her eyes. They each have each other a look and shrugged. Natasha turned to Roman.

"When do we start?" 

*

*

"Seven months ago they were amateurs, and tonight they think they have what it takes to win. Welcome to the first Lost Girls tournament, where select members of each of the six groups compete against each other to see who is the best group ever." Jade, a bubbly Japanese girl, announced into the microphone, from the make shift stage they set up in the centre of the field. Her co-host and girlfriend, Bo, a Chinese girl stood beside her with a huge grin on her face.

"Remember girls, this is a friendly event, so no biting. I'm looking at you Catelina. You play nice now okay." 

There were six groups of girls surrounding the stage and they all wore different colours. Each group was diverse, not only in race and nationality, but also in skill and strength. Roman thought it would be best if they mingled instead of sticking to just the girls from their country, and she was right. Each of them became closer friends and they all learned to be more comfortable with each other.

This entire tournament thing was all Emma and Amanda's idea, as they were inspired by the Olympics. They brought it up to the girls first to get them in board and seven of the girls came to Roman one day, and presented the idea very professionally. 

Roman didn't need to even think about it, she helped them set it up and invited a small group of people to come watch. With the girls' permission of course. Most of the girls got over their fears of men after a few months, others were still a work in progress, they all met Thor by accident a few months ago and they all fell in love with him. 

Roman sat on the far side of the field with the Avengers, her wife Carolina, some of the guys from group, Nick Fury, Sharon and Maria. 

"Our first event is archery!" Jade announced.

Clint stood up and cheered, "Team purple is totally gonna win this, they're gonna wipe the floor with the red team." He teased Natasha.

Roman scoffed, "Neither of them are gonna win, not with Imani on the Orange team, her aim is almost perfect." 

From the corner of her eyes she saw Carolina till her eyes and huff, she ignored the woman, whatever was bothering her could wait. Roman was seriously getting tired of her attitude, always negative, it's like she swapped bodies with a needy cunt.

"Next up is acrobatics, then boxing, then we're taking it to the shooting range, sniper style and lastly the event to end all events, this is the most important. You could come dead last in everything, and win this event and the entire tournament will be yours. This event will test your skills and your critical thinking and those not worthy will be going home without the crown. Ladies! I'm talking about the one the only..." There was a drum roll and both Bo and Jade yelled excitedly, "Paintball!" 

All of the teams cheered.

"We are going to get out of your hair now, but we will be making our commentary on the games, Bo and I are super excited that we don't have to take part in this. We're far too fragile." 

Bo giggled, "When it's all finished, Mrs. Stark is going to announce out champion. Will it be red, yellow, orange, purple, blue or green? Stay tuned to find out." 

*

*

Even though it was meant to be competitive, the girls just had fun with everything. During acrobatics, one of the girls in the red team fell and someone from the yellow team went running to her aid. But in the end, a winner needed to be crowned.

Roman ran on stage with Bo and Jade and took a microphone. "Ladies! You were all wonderful today, from day one you were all so dedicated to learning, that each and every one of you learned more in seven months than anyone I have ever taught. But, there can only be one winning team and I think we all know who it is. Ximena, would you and the rest of the green team step up on stage to accept this most prestigious award?"

The Lebanese girl happily ran up the stage with her team. They each gave Roman a hug, all twenty three of them and the woman happily accepted them all. 

There were twenty three candy necklaces set on a table next to, Uhuru, a tiny bubbly girl. She placed each necklace around each of their necks and gave them a very, professional, hand shake. "Well done ladies." She giggled immediately after, making the others laugh.

Roman handed Ximena the microphone. "I can't believe we won, I had zero faith in myself as a leader, I felt like I was messing everything up and it was a total nightmare. I want to thank everyone on my team, I had the best team in the world, and if not for you I wouldn't have gotten my first candy necklace. Thank you girls." 

She gave Roman the microphone and walked off stage with her team following, "I'm gonna hand this over to my right hand woman, Amanda, and she's gonna close out so we can go to the after party." 

Amanda ran up the stairs and grabbed the mic, "Everyone here was amazing today. You all blew me away, if anyone told me seven months ago we would be this good, I would've smacked them upside their head. Which is why, I'm glad to announce that we have arranged a camping trip this weekend." Everyone cheered for that, "I want to thank you all for participating in the Lost Girls tournament, hopefully we can be back here next year. Thank you to our wonderful teachers, Ms. Carter, Mr. Romanoff, Ms. Hill and Ms. Loki, even thought we frustrated you guys sometimes, you took your time with us and inspired us to do better. I am grateful, in fact we are all grateful." There was an applause and Amanda started jumping, "Let's get to the after party bitches!"

*

*

"I am so proud of you Roman." Carolina said in a sarcastic voice. Roman snapped. They were standing together in a corner away from everyone's ears.

"Okay, what the fuck is wrong with you? What crawled up your cunt and fucking died? You've been acting like a complete bitch for almost a year, and don't blame it on the girls, you've been doing it far before they got here." 

Carolina rolled her eyes, "Nothing is wrong and there is no reason you should talk to me like that. I'm you're wife, you need to respect me."

Roman gave her a nasty look and walked away from her. If she didn't get away from that woman, there would've been a murder.

Roman relaxed in another corner and watched as everyone mingled. The guys from group left early so it was just SHIELD people and the Avengers. The girls talked to them, even Kateryna who didn't really talk to anyone. Some of the girls were gushing over Morgan and Tony was in the middle of them showing them pictures of her. Clint was showing Imani some arrow tricks and she listened to every single word, even taking notes sometimes. Thor was dancing to the music with a group of girls and having a blast, at one point, he pulled Loki from his seat to join in on the fun. 

The party lasted three hours until everyone got tired, most of the Avengers went home. Just Bucky and Sam stayed behind as they had fallen asleep on one of the many couches. Emma wrapped a blanket over them and the other girls all went to bed. Roman went upstairs to one of the spare rooms to sleep, there was no way in hell she was going home with the miserable bitch she called her wife.

"Goodnight girls." 

"Goodnight Mrs. Stark." 

*

*

Camping.

This would mark the first time in fifteen years since Roman went camping. She usually went with Ben, sometimes Nick. Her son loved the outdoors, every summer when Roman was off work for a few days, she'd take him to a spot they came upon when they got lost the first time. The last time they came up here Ben had just graduated from Stanford, and it would be the last time either really had any time for the other.

Coming back up to the place filled Romans head with the memories and she couldn't stop smiling the entire trip. The campsite wasn't a traditional camp site as Roman built a house of sorts on the spot where they could sleep. Because of her job, she had to make sure that no one would try to kill them in their sleep. The house was huge, filled with panic rooms and secret passages. It was large enough to fit all of the girls but they were gonna have to share.

Natasha and Loki were the only ones who could make it, Maria and Sharon had a mission and neither of them liked camping. Which was fine. Roman drove the first bus and a few of the girls drove the other five. They still weren't comfortable around new people, so Roman and Amanda taught some of them how to drive a bus and other stuff.

They were working on the new people thing. At least fifteen of them got a job somewhere that did not have anything to do with Roman. Some of them were working at Stark industries, either as assistants to Pepper or helping Happy with security. A few of them were surprisingly good at fixing cars, so Roman let them work with Tommy at her garage. Some of them were in college, Emma and Bo took turns baby sitting Morgan or dog sitting for Roman. After meeting Tony for the first time and witnessing what a disaster he was, Kateryna and Ximena, volunteered to help him in the workshop and make sure he slept and ate. They were fans of his since they were kids, and they wanted to make sure he didn't kill himself. The rest of the girls helped out around the house to pull their weight. 

Every week they would sit down in the gardens and just talk to each other, many of them haven't picked up English very well so they all still had the ear pieces, as well as the people they worked with. 

On the bus, they sang songs from each of their respective cultures. In the three hour drive, Roman heard a number of Russian songs, African, Hindi, Japanese, etc. She tapped along to some of them on the steering wheel. 

By the time they pulled up to the house, the girls were getting antsy. They were all very excited to get out of the house and away from the loud city and this was the perfect place. 

There was a huge lake a couple miles from the house, a few hiking trails and a large open space where they could have a bonfire. Amanda had the entire thing planned out and in a binder. She even had room allocations and several different team building activities they could participate in. She was a huge nerd and it was adorable. She was driving the last bus with Loki. Nat was with Roman in the back singing along to the Russian songs. 

Roman shut off the bus and opened the doors, all the girls grabbed and ran off the bus. The woman stayed behind and searched the bus to make sure no one left anything behind, and she did find something, a penguin plushy they got from the zoo and few months prior. She picked it up and carried it out side where the girls had gathered.

"Anyone forgetting something?" She raised it in the air. Elizabeth, which was very surprising, stepped forward and took it and hugged it to her chest with a blush spread across her face. The girl usually had a scowl on her face and was one of the angriest people Roman had ever met. She was also one of the biggest girls and was fairly quiet, her having a penguin plushy was entirely unexpected.

Elizabeth cleared her throat, "I'm just holding it...for my friend in the other bus. It's not mine I swear." 

"Don't be embarrassed about owning cute things Liza. I still have my Bucky Bear from when I was six in my bedroom. The other girls aren't gonna give you any shit for it, right girls?"

"Of course not. I have my stuffed giraffe in my backpack." Constance assures her. Liza cracked a small smile and hugged the plushy to her chest.

"I just really like penguins okay."

Roman chuckled, "It's fine." 

The other busses pulled in and a group of girls, already in their bikinis, ran toward Roman, "Where is the lake? We want to go swimming." 

Roman pointed right, "It's a long walk, be careful. Do you guys have sun screen?"

"Yes, yes, yes. We're going now. Bye." They ran off in the direction, leaving the others standing in front of the house. Roman lead them to the front door and placed her hand on a scanner. 

"Good Afternoon Roman, it's been years since you've come here. Everything but the air conditioning is functional." Jarvis' voice came through the speaker by the door. The door swung open and all of the lights came on.

"I don't think we need the lights right now Jarvis, it's still bright out. I can fix the air conditioning." She motioned for the girls to enter the house, "After you guys."

*

*

After a fun filled afternoon, with swimming and hiking, the girls finally settled down around a bonfire. They were just talking and enjoying each other's company, all wearing bright smiles. Today was a good day.

Roman was lost in her thoughts about her wife. They had another fight about something meaningless. As they always did, but the fights seemed to be getting even more ridiculous and it was constant. At first Roman thought Carol needed a good fucking, or attention, but nothing she did was working. It's been this way for a few years, but they saw so little of each other it didn't really matter that much. This time, Roman told Carolina she was going camping with the girls and asked if she wanted to come. Carolina did that thing she always did where she would come up with a mess of excuses, instead of just saying no, and Roman snapped a little.

Now she was contemplating an apology, then she came to the sudden realisation that they've through this already, it was a cycle of arguments, apologies and fucking. Roman wanted to break the cycle, she was not enjoying it and she could tell that Carolina wasn't either. She could tell there was something going on with the woman, something she was ashamed of. She figured whatever it was they could work through it together, but is it worth it? Was it worth..?

God Dammit, she came up here to get away from those thoughts. Today was supposed to be fun, a way to get out of her head, but that seemed almost impossible now, this problem with her wife wasn't going to leave her head until it was dealt with. If only she could figure what the hell was bothering her so much. Everything would be fine again when they talked through it like adults. What the hell was so bad she didn't want to come to Roman? What was she hiding? What was...?

"Mrs. Stark?" Hanna asked. This snapped Roman out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" 

"What's your favourite colour?" Amelia asked. 

"Yellow."

Some of the girl's facas turned up in disgust, "You're lying, no one's favourite colour is yellow."

"Well mine is, it's a beautiful colour."

"Why? What's the story behind you finding yellow beautiful?" Camila asked, she leaned forward hugging her knees slightly in anticipation. Almost the same as the other girls.

"I used to hate the colour yellow, it was ugly to me. Until one day I'm picking up my three year old from kindergarten and he asked what my favourite colour was. They had learned about colours that day and he was so excited to tell me all the colours he knows. I told him to guess, at the time, my favourite colour was green, but he shouted out, "Yellow!" as loud as he could. I wanted to tell him the truth, but he looked so proud of himself. Big adorable smile on his caramel face, I didn't want to ruin that so I told him he was right and the smile got bigger, he did a little dance in the car and I just smiled like an idiot for three hours after that." Roman had a small reminiscent smile on her face, which turned sad when she was faced with the reality that she's never gonna see him again. A tear ran down her face and she immediately wiped it, "Ahh, fuck." 

Loki, who was sitting next to her, wrapped her pale arms around Roman and rubbed her arm. 

"We're sorry if we made you uncomfortable, Mrs. Stark." Natalie stated and a few others nodded in agreement.

"No it's not your fault. You didn't make me uncomfortable. It was just a really nice memory, thank you."


	4. Chapter 4

Roman kicked her front door shut, she frowned as she didn't hear the pattering of the dogs' paws on the wooden floor like she usually did when Carolina was home. They weren't in the front yard, maybe they were in the back yard. She could smell food cooking and frowned again. Carol hated cooking and wasn't very good at it, there was no way that was her.

She stepped in the kitchen and saw Carol all dressed up in a fancy green dress, her hair and make up done, high heels on. She was stirring something on the stove, or pretending to.

"What's all this?" Carolina jumped out of her skin.

She looked up at her wife bewildered and suddenly her face snapped into a fake smile. "Honey, this is all for you. I know we've been having some issues lately and I thought I should make something special for you when you get back from your camping trip. You said nine, you're too early, I wanted to surprise you. It's your favourite, tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I even wore your favourite dress." 

Roman wasn't an idiot, she knew this wasn't for her at all. For one, she was deathly allergic to tomatoes and Carolina knew that, second, Roman had never seen that God awful dress in her life, and lastly, her lipstick was smudged. The woman walked over to kiss Roman but Roman pulled away. This should hurt, knowing that this entire thing wasn't for her should hurt. But it didn't.

It was more anger than hurt, and she could feel an outburst coming, but then the doorbell rang. They both looked toward the direction of the door, "You should go get that." Roman suggested.

"Right." Carol left to answer the door and Roman took the time to look around the kitchen. She dropped her bag on the floor and looked around. The kitchen was empty so she stalked down the hallway. Suddenly, there was a noise coming from the laundry room, a loud thud, like something dropped. 

At first she thought it was Tabitha, the cat loved to do shit like that, but she remembered seeing her asleep on the couch in the living room. Roman had her answer, she walked back to the kitchen and picked up her bag. She went to her bedroom and threw the dirty camping clothing in the hamper, and picked out new ones to put in the bag. 

Roman took her car keys from the small bowl in the kitchen and left through the back door. Not before stealing all of the grilled cheese sandwiches and all of the bread they had, along with dumping all the salt the had into the soup.

*

*

Nick Fury entered his house after a long day at work. He was getting too old for everything, but their was no way that he would retire any time soon. He shut the door with his foot and walk through the house to the kitchen, where he found a plate of cold grilled cheese sandwiches. There was a note on the plate saying; "It's Roman, I'm sleeping in your bed, don't shoot. Ps. Enjoy the stolen goods." There was a smiley face drawn on the bottom of the note, and the entire thing made the man crack a small smile. Nick picked up one of the sandwiches and made his way to his bedroom.

Surely enough, Roman was there sleeping in his bed in a yellow t-shirt with the blankets draped across her lower body. Her hearing aids were on his night stand, so she definitely didn't hear him come in. 

Nick finished the sandwich and went to take a shower. 

When he got out a few minutes later, Nick got dressed and got into the bed beside Roman. As soon as his head touched the pillow, the woman rolled over and latched onto him like a koala bear, with her head resting on his chest. He wrapped an arm around her and stroked her head softly as small snores came from her. He stayed like that until he slowly drifted off to sleep.

*

*

The charity ball.

The most horrible time of the year, Roman didn't have a choice in the matter as this year it was for her. More so Amanda. She wanted to raise awareness to sex trafficking and get as much people to help fight it. She was the only reason Roman was going. 

That and she wanted to get out of the house away from her wife for a bit, but that backfired spectacularly, as Carolina decided that she wanted to support the girls. Roman knew she wanted too keep an eye on her, she probably thought Roman was fucking Amanda, or something equally ignorant. Damn her.

So there they were, dressed in expensive gowns, Roman's gold and Carol's black. Sitting at the dinner table while everyone else mingled and danced. Roman was downing champagne like shots, which worried Carol because Roman doesn't drink, ever. 

The few girls that attended with Amanda came to talk to her at one point, but they saw that Roman was not in a talking mood and left. The same went for the Avengers. After around fifteen to thirty glasses, Roman was properly drunk, but it didn't seem that way. The woman sat at the table, calmly staring off into the abyss.

"Roman? What the hell is wrong with you? You don't drink." Carol asked.

Roman sighed heavily, "I want a divorce." 

"What?" The announcement shocked the blonde.

"Now I am proud to present Amanda Matthews." Pepper introduced the girl, and she walked onto the stage with a big smile. She looked beautiful, yellow strapless gown, her thick curly hair was pinned up and she wore very little make-up. Her caramel skin seemed to shimmer under the lights as if she was wearing glitter on her skin.

"Good night everyone."

*

*

They left early. After what Roman said, Carolina thought they needed to talk. Roman was still very drunk and she was half awake in the passenger seat. The car was quiet for the first five minutes of the ride before Carol broke it.

"Did you mean what you said just now?"

"I always mean what I say Carol." 

"Why do you want a divorce? If it's because of the fighting in sure we could work something out." 

"I already worked something out, the divorce." 

Carol took a shaky breath, "Why though? Why do you want a divorce so bad after twenty fucking years?"

"You had dick breath." Roman mumbled, "Last week, when I came home early from the camping trip, you went to kiss me and I could smell the dick you sucked. I was a slut before I met you. I know what I'm talking about." 

"Are you seriously playing the victim right now. You're gonna act like you haven't been cheating on me with Fury this entire time. I see the looks, I know the history, you can't tell me that you're just friends, I'm sick of hearing it." 

Roman groaned, "This again. I haven't slept with that man since the nineties. I've known him since we were nine, I'm not gonna stop being friends with him because you're insecure, that's a you problem." 

"You also forgot my birthday for the fifth year in a row, and our anniversary." 

"Boo fucking hoo, I don't even remember my own birthday."

Carolina cut her a nasty look, "That's your fucking excuse!? Let's talk about all those girls, I see the way you look at Amanda." 

"First Fury, now Amanda. God, someone's delusional. And I wouldn't do that, she's like my daughter." 

"I'm delusional?"

"Do you want me to say it in Spanish?" 

"Fuck you Roman!" Carol slapped the steering wheel in anger, "We are gonna talk this out and you're gonna fucking listen to me!"

Roman raised her hands to her hearing aids and turned them off, "I'm sorry what did you say? I'm afraid I can't hear you."

"Real fucking mature Roman! You know what, I'm glad you want a divorce. I was getting tired of you anyway, I hope you rot in hell you miserable..." 

Suddenly, their car was hit by a semi truck, hard, as they crossed at an intersection. It hit on Roman's side and the impact sent Carolina's head through her window. 

Roman groaned in pain, there was a piece of debris piercing her side, she could barely even feel it, thanks to the alcohol. Her legs and arms were fine, it was surprisingly just her side that was hurt.

The sound of footsteps became clear when she turned her hearing aids back on, they were light which was the only way they could be described. Roman looked across at her wife and reached for her arm to check her pulse. It was weak.

"I'm so happy that this wasn't my car." She whispered to herself.

She wiggled her toes, making sure she wasn't crippled or anything and felt around for any other injuries. The footsteps were getting closer and closer. Roman was relaxed, if this was thirty years ago, she's be panicking, but over the years she's learned that sometimes shit happens and you can't do anything about it. 

She remained calm and held her side, and she waited. The truck suddenly backed up and her door was yanked off, pulling whatever it was the was stuck in her side, straight out. She winced a bit, and looked up to whoever it was that hit her, but it was just a silhouette. She couldn't see a face as the truck's lights were on, all she saw was the gun, she heard a loud bang and felt a hot pain go through her stomach.

Roman winced in pain as three more loud bangs were heard and she felt a searing pain go straight through her chest. Her vision became blurry, and her breathing shallow, the last thing she heard before she passed out was; "Gun's not empty this time bitch."


	5. Chapter 5

"She's stable for now. Mrs. Stark was shot six times in the chest and three times in the abdomen, we have no idea how she's even still alive, but we don't know when or if she's gonna wake up. She acquired some brain damage from the collision. The surgery was a success even though there were a few hiccups, the head surgeon collapsed and had a seizure midway, but he's fine now. You can go see her when you're ready, but family members only." The doctor directed the last statement at Amanda, who got visibly upset.

Tony stepped in, "This is her grand daughter." 

The statement startled the girl for a bit, but she snapped back and went with it. The doctor looked at her sceptically, she could understand why. Amanda had brown skin and Roman was pale as hell, but he nodded, "Alright then."

"What about Carolina?" Pepper asked.

"I'm sorry but she didn't make it, she lost too much blood and we weren't able to save her." He smiled sadly and walked out of the waiting room, leaving them behind.

Tony, Amanda, and Pepper, who was carrying Morgan, all walked down the hall toward Roman's room. A nurse rushed past the four with a panicked look on her face along with four other nurses, and they all ran into Roman's room.

Pepper and Tony both exchanged looks and quickened their pace toward the hospital room. They found a nurse on the floor seizing up and foaming at the mouth while the other nurses were trying to stop it. Whatever it was.

Amanda looked toward Roman and saw the woman's eyes were opened. She tapped Tony on the arm and pointed toward the woman. The nurses stabilized the nurse on the floor and took her out of the room. Tony walked up to his sister's bed and went to touch her, but the woman moved out of the way and grunted.

"No touching, I'm too weak to control it." She sounded tired and out of breath. 

"What the hell are you talking about?" Tony asked in confusion. She looked at him even more confused than he was, he saw her hearing aids were out, and he signed the question instead.

"My body is fucked, it's trying to heal itself so it's gonna take from anyone who touches me until it's fully healed." Roman was practically wheezing and she winced in pain every time she breathed. "This is so... much worse than a... broken rib." 

"You got shot like nine times, it's gonna hurt worse than a broken rib." He signed. 

Amanda stepped forward and signed, "Carolina didn't make it. I'm so sorry." 

Roman looked like she was taking it in, a number of emotions making it across her face until she wheezed out, "Shit...happens." 

The statement made Amanda frown, and Pepper took her hand, "Don't let it get to you, she's been like this since the beginning of time. You'll eventually get used to it, I know it's unnerving but Roman handle a things very differently from everyone else." 

"Who did this to you?" Tony ignored the side conversation and signed.

Roman had a knowing look on her face, she knew exactly who did it to her and strangely enough, a sweet smile spread across her lips, "No one."

*

*

Roman was sitting up in bed when she had a visitor. A lady, she looked posh. Like one of those rich women you'd find at a polo match with those ridiculous hats. She had to be at least sixty, BOTOX was very prominent. She had long, black, wavy hair, she just looked like a straight up bitch, best way to describe her. Even with the BOTOX it looked like she was trying to wear that fake smile most old rich women wore on their face when they wanted to intimidate someone.

"Can I help you, lady?" Roman wheezed out. Tony had brought her her back up hearing aids earlier so she could hear the woman just fine. 

"I see Lily did a terrible job of killing you, I thought her anger toward you would be an asset, looks like I was wrong." The woman stalked up to Roman's hospital bed, it was very clear that she was trying to be intimidated, but nothing in the entire world could scare Roman more than her parents did. The woman settled at the side of Romans bed and rest her hands near Roman's left hand.

"In her defence, people have been trying to kill me since the day I was born. I think I might be invincible." Roman winced in pain and coughed, making her wince even more.

"You don't look very invincible now." 

"Three days ago, my brain was bleeding, I had three bullets in my heart, two in my stomach and four somewhere else. The doctors thought I was gonna die and I didn't. I'd say that was pretty invincible." 

The woman threw her hair over her shoulder and put a hand on her hip, "Enough chit chat, I bet you're wondering who I am and why I'm here. I'm here because you took my property and damaged my business, it took me months to gain the trust of my clients again, and months to find out who fucked me so royally. Lily was supposed to kill you, but it looks like I'm gonna have to do that myself." 

"I'm guessing you're Annika Petrova. The famous A.P. The girls figured out who you were ages ago, I was wondering when you were gonna pop up." Roman sat up in bed slowly. "They wanted to kill you so bad."

"And you what, talked them out of it? Am I supposed to thank you?"

Roman chuckled, "I didn't stop anything, after some thinking, they realised that you weren't ruining what they had for revenge. They built a family together and many of them...are the happiest they've ever been. And finding out who you were, it did anger them but it also made them realise, that without your pathetic ass, they would never have found each other."

So many emotions passed on Annika's face, anger being a very prominent one, until she settled with a smile. Roman raised an eyebrow, "Are you constipated or something?"

Annika raised her hand to caress Roman's face with her bare hand, "This will only take a second and then you'll be..." Annika gasped in pain. 

There was a golden glow coming from the spot where Annika's hand was on Roman's face, she went to pull her hand away, but Roman's suddenly came up and held it in place.

"What...is...this?" Annika forced out. Her skin started cracking and the glow burst through each crack, the old bitch looked beautiful. Roman held her hand tightly and grabbed the woman by the neck bring her eye level to her. She opened her mouth and streams of gold flowed from Annika's open mouth into hers. Annika threw her head back to scream, but burst into a cloud of golden smoke. 

Roman looked down at her body, she was still in tremendous pain but not as much, she groaned, "How was that not enough? She was a whole person, you should be healed by now." She swung her feet over the edge of the bed and slowly stood up. She stumbled for a bit, as she hadn't walked in three days, once she steadied herself, she limped over to the bag Amanda left with her clothes.

She stripped out of the hospital gown and the wires attached to her, getting dressed in a yellow track suit and her boots, along with leather gloves and a black beanie to put over her messy brown hair. She winced in pain with every move she made and contemplated getting back into the uncomfortable bed, then her hatred of hospitals rose within her and she ignored her aching body.

Roman put the bag on her back and limped to the door. She stuck her head out, making sure the coast was clear and her annoyingly sweet nurse wasn't anywhere near the room, and she took off, as fast as she could down the hall. It was mostly her limping and holding onto the walls for support, she held her side and cursed in pain with every step, until she came upon an empty wheelchair. 

It looked fairly new, unused, there wasn't anyone around really, so she took the opportunity and sat in the chair, wheeling herself to the front door.


	6. Chapter 6

"I cannot believe you talked us into this. Not bringing any weapons? This bitch tried to kill you like two weeks ago and you wanna recruit her?" Ashanti was pissed, Roman was going by herself originally but the twenty six year old African woman caught her limping out of the house. She sat beside Roman in the car looking at an old run down apartment building, Ashanti huffed, "I don't understand, she killed your wife. I know your emotional intelligence is incredibly low, but you have to feel some kind of anger toward this woman." 

Oleksandra, Sandy for short, grunted in agreement, the twenty-five year old Russian woman in the back seat turned her nose up, "I say we kill the bitch." 

"It would be very hypocritical of me to kill her because she killed my wife, I was thinking about doing the same thing, just more creative. Also she was manipulated by that A.P bitch, she's lost, she just needs a good home and good friends and we could try to at least let her decided what she wants. You should have seen the look on her face the first time she tried to kill me, she looked so lost. I say we give her a chance. If she tried to kill any of us, we can put her down." Roman reasoned.

Both of the women nodded, "I'm only agreeing because you said we could kill her later." Ashanti forced out.

Roman looked back at Sandy, the blonde woman and her arms crossed and she rolled her eyes, "Fine." 

*

*

Lily was crying in the bathroom mirror, she was really gonna do it this time. She held the sharp razor in her right hand. Lily thought getting revenge on Roman would make her feel better, making Roman feel the pain she went through for all those years after she lost her beloved brother. She knew the woman had nothing to do with her parents' treatment of her, but it made her feel better to pass the blame. Now she just felt like shit, like a huge piece of shit. 

Lily climbed into the tub and said a prayer, "God? I know you're probably not real and if you are you probably don't give a shit about me. Who would? This disease won, it finally broke me, but I don't wanna go. I don't wanna go. If you sent me a sign, I would never even think about this again, I'll try to change. I'll get clean, I'll try harder. I can be better, I can do better. I promise I can. God I'm so pathetic, my brother would be so ashamed of me right now."

Lily took a deep breath and put the razor to her wrist and pressed down. 

Suddenly, there was a knock at her door. Lily dropped the razor in the tub, startled by the sound, she was frozen until the knocking came again. She wiped her tears and stood up, she was shaking like a leaf even though it was fairly warm outside.

Lily didn't even bother looking though the peep hole, didn't even think to look. If it was Annika here to kill her, the old bitch would be doing her a favour. 

Instead, she got the surprise of her life when she opened up to a smiling Roman and two very angry looking women. "Hello Lily."

*

*

"You're insane, I can't run this thing by myself. I'm nineteen years old, I barely even know how to take care of myself." 

Roman rolled her eyes, "You don't have to take care of them, they're all grown women. It's like being the student president or whatever it was that you were. You're the team captain basically." 

"Okay, okay. Cool, I can do that. I think. Why don't you want to run the program anymore?"

"With all the shit going on, I can't handle all of this. CIA missions, SHIELD missions, then the Avengers, then I still have to run my shop and the soup kitchen every night. I can't exactly do this to. Also I'm getting old as shit, I'm supposed to be retired, this is insane." 

"And your wife died." Amanda pointed out.

"Right, that to." Roman caught the look the girl gave her and she rolled her eyes, "Look I'm not a very emotional person okay. My therapist gave me one of those emotional intelligence tests, and I got twenty out of two hundred. On the bright side, I'm a great decision maker." 

"Jesus Christ. Twenty? That's borderline psychopathic." 

"Nothing to worry about, I'm not narcissistic enough to be a psychopath and I don't like manipulating people cause it makes me feel bad, you know."

Amanda looked at the woman in confusion, "You are a fucking enigma, do you know that?"

"I don't know what that word means, but it sounds like a compliment so I'll say, thank you." 

Amanda sighed, she looked across at the red headed woman who was standing at the door, "What about Lily? She can't stay here, all of the girls want to kill her."

"She's going to stay with me, or in the space above the garage, where ever she wants. She's probably gonna pick me. When we got to her apartment, as soon as she saw me she just jumped into my arms and started crying like a baby. It took me like thirty minutes to get her off. She's apologized many times, and it's starting to get annoying, but even though she annoys me, she clearly needs my help and I'm not gonna leave her. Unless she cries on me again, I was wearing my yellow Gucci tracksuit and she ruined it." 

Amanda let out another sigh and hugged Roman, "I'm gonna miss you being around everyday. Can I call you? For anything?" 

Roman pat the girl's wild curls, "That is a stupid question, you can call me for anything, like say, you stubbed your toe and you just need someone to cry to, or your hair looks a little flat, anything. I can't promise I won't call you an idiot though." 

Amanda pulled away and smiled up at the woman, "Will you at least come to the ski trip?" 

"I gave you the money for the ski trip, if I don't get invited I will be very angry. I won't do anything harsh because you girls are like my grand daughters, but I will do something none of you will like." Roman warned playfully.

Amanda laughed, "I hear you." 

Roman kissed the top of her head and walked off toward the terrified woman waiting for her at the door. "Come along Lily Pad, we are going to get ice cream."


End file.
